Opti- Coat 2.0 Prep

[JKTMZ6]

Hi All,

I recently purchased a 2016 Sonic Silver Mazda6, and I've ordered Opti-Coat to protect the paint because my driveway at my house at school has a lot of trees. The Mazda3 I traded had etched paint from sap, so hoping to avoid that this time around.

So my question is how much prep do I need to do for a new car? I've searched the forum and haven't been able to find an exact answer. The directions call for the whole car to be compounded and buffed.

I took my LED flash light and inspected the pain, and honestly it is just about perfect. No spiderwebs or swirls in the paint. The car had some minor overspray on the side (parked near where they do touch ups) so the dealer clayed and waxed the whole car before I picked up. Can I get away with just claying and a hand polish before coating it? Feed back please

My plan is to
Wash
Clay
Hand Polish
IPA wipe down
Apply Opti-Coat

[GSKR]

you can do what you want for the time you have.To maximize and benefit from the coating polishing is in order,but if it's a time constraint to do that just make sure all the wax is off the car prior to application.

[JKTMZ6]

you can do what you want for the time you have.To maximize and benefit from the coating polishing is in order,but if it's a time constraint to do that just make sure all the wax is off the car prior to application.

Thank you, Any suggestions on a good polish to use?

[GSKR]

My personal opinion is that polishing by hand would be overkill and senseless because there is no correcting or removing any swirls or minor defects.Then prior to application of coating you will be removing the polish oils and every little swirl you tried to diminish by hand will reappear so I would skip that part .just clay and preclean with ipa for good bonding.

[Rsurfer]

Where did you get the Opticoat 2.0?

[Chris Thomas]

No matter what the visual inspection, for best chance at full durability you should use hyper polish followed by paint prep.